Report: MLB looking to expand instant replay

During the pivotal game 2 of the Yanks’ and Twins’ 2009 American League Division Series, Joe Mauer lofted a ball down the left field line. It bounced fair in front of Melky Cabrera and bounded into the stands. The umpire though called it a foul ball, and the Yanks went onto win that game in 11 innings. If ever there were an appropriate time for instant replay, that play was it.

Today, we learn that baseball is considering expanding instant replay. Per the Associated Press, video review could be expanded in 2012 to “include trapped balls and fair-or-foul rulings down the lines.” MLB umps would not review safe or not calls, and strikes and balls would remain under the purview of the home plate umpire. Outside of a nostalgic appeal for history, there’s no reason not to do that. Getting these calls right takes minimal effort, and should take paramount importance in the scheme of a nine-inning game often decided by a matter of inches.

mlb is as quick to adopt expanded instant replay as jorge posada is slow around the bases.

Mickey Scheister

But Jorge was speedy before he was a catcher.

Mickey Scheister

I’m still an advocate for RoboUmps as opposed to the old man eyes variable strike zone.

ShuutoHeat

But the human element of the game! Won’t somebody think of the human element!!!

OldYanksFan

How about if we replace RoboPlayers with HUMANS? Then, the loss of 4 fat, blind Humans wouldn’t be that big a deal.

Cy Pettitte

double the amount of umps on the field

less errors (hopefully) and less unemployment, boom, everything is fixed

Esteban

Why stop at double?

toad

How would fair/foul rulings work for non-HR or ground-rule doubles? The runners and fielders have to do something. It’s OK if a fair ball is subsequently ruled foul, but what if it’s the other way?

Does everyone just always assume the ball is fair and play on that basis?

J. Scott

To the greatest extent possible, MLB needs to go the NHL route by centralizing the review process in one location with the onfield umpires being excused from the review process.

MikeD

MLB seems concerned the review process will slow the game down, but the reviews have never bothered me. They actually add a little bit of tension as we await the ruling. Make it so.

Ed

Getting the call right is the easy part. Now that you’ve determined the call on the field was wrong, how do you correct it?

Take the Mauer play. The umpire calls it foul, everyone stops running. Replay says the ball was fair. Where does Mauer end up? Take the same play but with runners on base? How do you decide where everyone ends up?

http://beatofthebronx.com Beat Of The Bronx

I am completely against instant replay. I think the reason baseball is so appealing to some people is because of the human element and the “randomness” of some occurrences.

I know taking that randomness away from the game, even as slow paced as it is, will lead to some negative appeal to the fan base.